The Tragic Beauty of Greenland's Melting Ice Sheets

Photographer Tom Hegen got a bird’s eye view of the melting ice sheets in Greenland when he took a plane up 3,000 feet in the air.

“Up in the air, you have to be very quick,” said Hegen, according to Atlas Obscura. Imagine trying to capture an image of an animal from a quarter-mile away, while in a car going 100 miles an hour. That’s what it’s like when Hegen shoots aerial photographs from a plane.

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The two degree Celsius Series. Documenting global warming effects on the Arctic Ice Sheet.

A post shared by Tom Hegen (@tomhegen.de) on Nov 6, 2018 at 7:22am PST

But from that vantage point, Hegen can see things that he couldn’t see from the ground. His new series, Two Degrees Celsius, captures the effects of climate change on the Arctic ice sheet extending over Greenland. The blue water and white ice form almost abstract shapes at the places were the frozen north is melting away, writes Atlas Obscura.

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The Two Degree Celsius Series. The Arctic is the fastest warming place of this planet, providing the first indication of how climate change is having an impact. Meltwater flows over the ice, enters into it and then flowing downstream into the ocean. It’s melting surface is one of the most obvious examples of global climate change. Below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is the agreed goal, signed by 197 countries at the Paris climate agreement in 2015 to limit global warming to avoid disastrous consequences of climate change. The two°degrees Series explores the effects of global warming on the Arctic Ice Sheet. #artisoninstagram #artisticphotography #capturedconcepts #conceptualphotography #emotive #featuremeofh #fineart #fineartist #fineartphoto #fineartphotographer #fineartphotography #fineartportrait #fineartprint #fineartprints #forbiddenart #l0tsabraids #marvelshot #of2humans #pixel_ig #visualcreators #visualsgang #visualsoflife #whyconcept

A post shared by Tom Hegen (@tomhegen.de) on Oct 29, 2018 at 5:32am PDT

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New Project »The two°degree Celsius Series« online: The intention for my aerial photo projects is to show the complex relationship between man and nature. I always try to deliver some sort of background information about the topics. Here is a short summarization of the new project »The two°degree Celsius Series«. You can see the whole project in the link in my story. I encourage you to read the short essay at the end of the page. It’s a topic which is important to all of us: Global sea level rise will be one of the major environmental challenges of the 21st Century. One of the leading causes of sea level rise is the melting of ice from glaciers and ice sheets. The Greenland ice sheet alone contains enough water to raise global sea levels by more than 7 meters. The Arctic is the fastest warming place of this planet, providing the first indication of how climate change is having an impact. Meltwater flows over the ice, enters into it and then flowing downstream into the ocean. It’s melting surface is one of the most obvious examples of global climate change. Below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is the agreed goal, signed by 197 countries at the Paris climate agreement in 2015 to limit global warming to avoid disastrous consequences of climate change. The two°degrees Series explores the effects of global warming on the Arctic Ice Sheet.

A post shared by Tom Hegen (@tomhegen.de) on Oct 26, 2018 at 2:40am PDT

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The two degrees Celsius Series, Greenland 2018. 1000 meter above the Arctic Ice Sheet. . Meltwater river . The surface of the Arctic Ice Sheet is not a seamless plain of ice, it’s more like Swiss cheese, covered with thousands of seasonal rivers and lakes on the surface through which meltwater is able to flow over the ice, enter into the ice and then flowing downstream into the ocean.

A post shared by Tom Hegen (@tomhegen.de) on Nov 3, 2018 at 11:54am PDT